xargs - Construct argument lists and invoke utility
Synopsis
xargs [-t] [-e[eofstring]] [-E eofstring] [-l[number ]] [-L number] [-n number [-x]] [-s size] [utility [arguments ...]]
Description
The xargs utility reads space, tab, newline and end-of-file delimited arguments from the standard input and runs the specified utility with them as arguments.
The utility and any arguments specified on the command line are given to the utility upon each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read from standard input. The utility is repeatedly run until standard input is exhausted.
Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single (') or double (") quotation marks or backslashes (\). Single quotation marks escape all non-single quotation mark characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching single quotation marks. Double quotation marks escape all non-double quotation mark characters, excluding newlines, up to the matching double quotation marks. Any single character, including newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.
If no utility is specified, echo is used by default.
Undefined behavior may occur if utility reads from the standard input.
The xargs utility exits immediately (without processing any further input) if a command line cannot be assembled, utility cannot be invoked, an invocation of the utility is ended by a signal, or an invocation of the utility exits with a value of 255.
Options
- -E eofstring
- Specify a logical end-of-file string. xargs reads standard input until either end-of-file or the logical end-of-file string is encountered.
- -e[eofstring]
- This option is equivalent to the -E option. If eofstring is not specified, the default value is _ (a single underscore).
- -L number
- Run utility for each non-empty number lines of arguments read from standard input. The last invocation of utility will be with fewer lines of arguments if fewer than number remain. A line is considered to end with the first newline character unless the last character of the line is a blank character. A trailing blank character signals continuation to the next non-empty line, inclusive. The -L and -n options are mutually exclusive. The last one specified takes effect.
- -l[ number ]
- This option is equivalent to the -L option. If number is not specified, the default value is 1.
- -n number
- Set the maximum number of arguments read from standard input for each invocation of the utility. An invocation of utility will use less than number standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumulated (see the -s option) exceeds the specified size or there are fewer than number arguments remaining for the last invocation of utility. The maximum number of arguments i5/OS can pass to a program is 255. The default value for number is 250. The -n and -L options are mutually exclusive. The last one specified takes effect.
- -s size
- Set the maximum number of bytes for the command line length provided to utility. The sum of the length of the utility name and the arguments passed to utility (including NULL terminators) will be less than or equal to size. The default value for size is 16 252 928 bytes.
- -t
- Turn on trace mode. The command to be run is written to standard error immediately before it is run.
- -x
- Force xargs to end immediately if a command line containing number arguments will not fit in the specified (or default) command line length.
Exit status
- 0 when all invocations of utility returned exit status 0.
- 1-125 when at least one invocation of utility returned a non-zero exit status or there was an error.
- 126 when utility was found but could not be invoked.
- 127 when utility cannot be found.
- >128 when utility was ended by a signal. The value is 128 plus the signal number.